


Fly Me to the Moon

by WhyTheHandbasket



Category: Free!
Genre: Bratty Rin and Haru, I think Kisumi would be an excellent flight attendant, M/M, meeting on a plane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-28 21:00:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5105600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyTheHandbasket/pseuds/WhyTheHandbasket
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Welcome to Japan...Makoto?” Whipping my head up, I first registered a head of pink hair. </p><p>“<i>Kisumi?</i>” I shook my head in disbelief. “What are you...never mind. I’m so glad to see you!” </p><p>He grinned at me, and motioned down the aisle. “Welcome to Japan Air, please find your seat. I’ll be around.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fly Me to the Moon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [attemptsonwords](https://archiveofourown.org/users/attemptsonwords/gifts).



> This is for [attemptsonwords](http://archiveofourown.org/users/attemptsonwords/pseuds/attemptsonwords), who's been an amazing source of MakoRIn, and who's written some of my favorite stories ever. 
> 
> You should stop right here and go read everything she's written, that would be a better use of your time. 
> 
> She wanted futurefish MakoKisu, this isn't precisely that, but I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Also: I almost named this 9h 55m, because, well. Yeah.

 

I sighed and hiked the bag up higher onto my shoulder. Lining up to enter the plane, I was glad to see that everyone was together; it would have been a pain to track anyone down in the crowded airport. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Haru and Rin behind me, both of them exhausted. We were all ready to go home.

I stepped onto the plane, ducking a bit to avoid hitting my head.

“Welcome to Japan...Makoto?” Whipping my head up, I first registered a head of peach hair.

“Kisumi?” I shook my head in disbelief. “What are you...never mind. I’m so glad to see you!”

He grinned at me, and motioned down the aisle. “Welcome to Japan Air, please find your seat. I’ll be around.” Winking, he turned to greet the next passengers.  

I sat and waited for the others to arrive. The wonder twins came down the aisle and plopped into their seats beside me.

“Did you see Kisumi?” Rin asked.

“Yes.”

“I can’t believe he’s a stewardess...I mean flight attendant!” He was trying to be awake and engaged, but he was exhausted.

Haru, on my other side, snarked. “Seems like a good fit. Coffee, tea or Kisumi?”

I laughed, I couldn’t help it. “Haru, be nice. I’ve always liked him.”

“We know.” chorused the terrible two, and I smothered both a smile and a sigh when they glared at each other.

We got settled in, blankets and pillows supplied by the friendly flight attendant that was not Kisumi, and waited for takeoff.

As they pulled away the skyway and locked the door, I saw Kisumi come down the aisle. He stopped by us and shot me a huge grin. “Come with me, Makoto. We have an empty seat in first class with your name on it.”

I climbed over Rin to get out of the row, feet tangling where he was trying to be accommodating, but just making things worse by trying to help. Haru was grumbling in the seat beside me, unsure if he should be upset that I was moving to first class, or that I was moving to first class with _Kisumi_. He’d been my best friend for years, and I loved him, but he could be so damned petty. I looked at the pouting pair and smiled. They were so cute, so tired.

“You two should sleep, it’s a long flight. I know you’re exhausted.”

Rin rolled his eyes and nodded, muttering under his breath. Haru just glared, so tired he looked more like a disgruntled kitten than an adult, barely able to keep his eyes open.

I followed Kisumi up the aisle, admiring the view. I’d always liked him, and now that we were actually adults, I could see the possibilities. He was gorgeous, those purple eyes intense and so damned engaged. I grinned to myself, hopelessly. I was such a sucker for a beautiful boy.

He led me to an empty row, two seats that hadn’t sold. Motioning me in, I slid into the window seat, and he sat beside me. “Both of these are empty, but I wanted to talk to you alone. If you’d rather, I can bring one of the others up here too.”

I schooled my face into neutrality, trying not to show how happy this made me. I was not at all sure that I was successful, to be honest. “No, this is fine. I’d love to catch up with you, and those two are exhausted, they need to sleep. Without me there, they can spread out.”

Kisumi grinned. “I’m glad. I’m working first class this trip, so I’ll be able to talk to you a good bit. So tell me, why were you three in Sydney?”

“Training and a swim competition. The competition just ended this afternoon, they competed in individual finals as well as the relay, and they’re beat.” I explained.

“How did you do?”

“They got gold and silver, with the relay winning bronze, which was good since the team has just started working together.”

“No, how did _you_ do?”

I startled, stared. “Me? I didn’t swim, I don’t swim any more. Well, I swim, I live with those two waterlogged idiots, but I don’t swim competitively. I’m coaching them; I’m one of the team’s student coaches.”

“Really? You don’t compete? That’s too bad, I bet you miss it.”

I turned towards him, ready to give the sincere smile and total lie that I’ve been spouting for the last couple of years, and found myself saying something completely unexpected.

“I do. I miss it a lot. I worried that I'd either get hurt or hit the wall and I knew I'd never be as good as either of them, so I quit.” I couldn’t believe I was telling him this, couldn’t believe that I was spilling my secrets to Shigino Kisumi, of all people, on a Sydney to Tokyo flight.

“Can you go back, get back into competition?” His purple eyes stared at me, demanding the truth. I gave it to him.

“I could try. It’s only been three years since we graduated high school and I stopped. I’ve kept in shape; I just haven’t pushed myself to keep in competitive form.”

“Well, maybe you should try, you never know. Just think about it, ok?”

“I will." I promised, and I meant it. "Now what about you? What’s been going on with you?”

“Me?” Kisumi laughed and rubbed his nose. “It’s a simple enough thing. I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, so I see no point in wasting my time and my parent’s money going to uni. I knew I could talk to anyone, and that I’m relatively presentable, so I thought this was a good job for me.”

“It suits you, Kisumi.”

“Thank you, it also pays well, I see the world and meet interesting people, and it gets me out of Iwatobi and away from the slightly, yet ever so obviously disapproving family.”

I smiled at him sympathetically. “Families can be hard.”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “So what’s going on with you three? I always figured you’d end up with Haru.”

“Me? With Mr. WaterWorld? Not hardly. He’s my best friend, and I adore him, but we’ll never be more than that. Now Rin and I, there was something there. But we decided a while ago it just wasn’t going to work, and are just friends.”

“Mr. WaterWorld? Really? Tachibana Makoto learned to snark? I didn’t know you had it in you. Color me impressed.”

I chuckled, agreeing. “You and I haven’t spoken since high school, right? Three years in Tokyo, and some things are bound to have changed. I’ve learned that sometimes I can speak my mind.” _Around some people...and somehow, you’re becoming one of them._

“That’s...a good thing, a damned good thing. Glad to hear it.” Kisumi got up to start the dinner service. “I’ll be back in a bit, Mako. Don’t give my seat away!” He winked at me as he moved towards the galley. I leaned back and watched him work, mind drifting, thinking about what we had said, what we _hadn’t_ said, and what we’d both implied.

Back in middle school, he’d been the one who’d saved my sanity. Everyone I knew and depended on was no longer around. Rin was in Australia, learning what it was to fail, how hard it was to get back up. Nagisa was in a different middle school than we were, facing his own brand of hell. And Haru, well, Haru was gone, drifting, drowning in a pool of regret and mourning that I couldn’t help him with, that I had _no idea_ how to help him with. I was a big ball of fear and self-loathing, unable to help my best friend, unable to overcome my own fears of the water and of death, feeling somehow unfit to be an older brother, unfit to be a son, unfit to _be_ ; all that pain and self-hatred culminating in a thought, a wish, an action that could have—should have—ended it all for me. Haru found me; Haru convinced me that he needed me to stick around, and at that point in my life that was the only thing that anyone could have said to change things, to make me want to stay. Then came Kisumi.

He didn’t need me, didn’t need anything from me, he just wanted to be friends. He wanted me to play basketball, to hang out, to talk. He didn’t want me to mother, to understand, to guard or guide, and at the time that was a novel experience for me. He encouraged me to say no (although I don’t think I ever did), to do what I wanted, to think for myself. He was my first crush and my first confusing steps into accepting myself were taken because of him. He never knew this, and I’m not sure he ever will.

But I do.

I think I’ll always love him a little for that, for being exactly what I needed when I needed it, even if he had no idea.

Finished distributing the dinners and making sure the passengers were comfortable; Kisumi plopped back down into the seat beside me. “Now, where were we?”

“You were about to tell me about the ‘obviously disapproving’ family. And Hayato. How’s Hayato?”

“Hayato is good; you wouldn’t believe it, Mako. He’s swimming with his middle school team. Backstroke. You’re his hero, he tells everyone about how you helped him. He’s going to flip when he finds out I saw you.”

“That’s good, I’m glad he’s still swimming. Tell him I said hello, and that I’ll come see him the next time I’m in Iwatobi.”

“I will! He’ll be excited to see you.”

“Looking forward to it.” We smiled at each other; fondness for our younger siblings is one of the many things we had in common.  

“So.” I started, “What’s going on with the rest of your family?”

Kisumi grimaced, looking slightly discomfited. “It’s nothing huge. I’m just...not quite what they expected in a son. I’m not ambitious, I’m not pursuing a respectable career, and I’m not going to bring home grandchildren to smooth things over. It’s not as if I’m the black sheep of the family, more like the gray one. Not quite scandalous, but still an object lesson for the young ones.”

I reached over and placed my hand on the back of his, giving it a quick squeeze.

“That’s rough, I’m sorry. My family’s a bit more accepting, but I can’t help feeling like a disappointment sometimes as well.”

We sat in silence for a while, minds preoccupied with our own thoughts. After a few minutes, he flipped his hand over under mine and slotted our fingers together. Looking at our joined hands, he spoke hesitantly. “You know, I had the biggest crush on you in middle school.”

I turned my head towards him, a spark of something lighting in my chest. Hope? Maybe. I didn’t really know, but it felt like something that I’d like to have around, something I’d like to cultivate.

“Oddly enough, you were _my_ first crush.” He lifted his head, eyes meeting mine, something that looked like I felt beginning to bloom in them. “I liked you _so much_ , Kisumi. So damned much. You were the one, the first person who didn’t want anything other than friendship from me, and I...I still love that about you.”

He smiled at me, and those beautiful eyes gleamed. “I had no idea. I always thought you were gone for Haru, that he’d claimed you from childhood or something.”

“Why does everybody think that? Can’t people just be good friends anymore? We’ve never been anything but friends. I’m not even sure he’s discovered girls. Or guys. Or anything that’s not solely composed of two hydrogen and one oxygen molecule…” I chuckled, only halfway kidding.

“Well, he’s never liked me. I figured he knew what I was thinking and was possessive of you.”

“It’s possible, but not for the reasons you’re thinking. More like he’d lost so many friends at that point he had to do whatever he could to ensure I stayed. He couldn’t handle losing another. Middle school was rough for us all.” We were still holding hands, talking easily, comfortable with each other.  

“That’s the truth of it. Anyway, that’s what I believed at the time.”

I knew that the next move was mine, that he’d opened a door and I was going to have to step through it first. He was pretty and pleasant, charismatic and charming, but he wasn’t confident, not about this. So I took a deep breath and took the plunge.

“So.” I tightened my grip on his hand, and met his gaze. ”Shigino Kisumi, I like you, and I think we could be good together. Would you do me the honor of having dinner with me?”

His eyes glistened, glittered at me, happiness and relief reflected in their depths. Laughing, he punched me with his free hand. “Sap. I’ll do you one better. You can buy me breakfast when we land.”

I smiled and agreed, and we continued to talk as his duties allowed, hands firmly entwined whenever he was beside me.

 

After landing in Tokyo, I bought him breakfast.

But he bought me lunch.

 

Dinner was dutch.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I have a serious Kisumi is a Flight Attendant headcanon. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think below, I hope you enjoyed. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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